The Wake Forest CTSI Community & Stakeholder Research Engagement Program recently hosted an innovative Reverse Community Tour inviting community partners across the Forsyth County research enterprise to experience first hand how research is conducted at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
The Reverse Tour is an ongoing effort of the Community & Stakeholder Research Engagement program to continue fostering bidirectional partnership and stewardship between the institution and its surrounding communities to build bridges and improve learning opportunities for both researchers and community members with the overarching goal of showcasing the research process.
Tour Highlights
Participants enjoyed a full day of interactive sessions and tours that showcased the breadth of research at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. The day began with a behind-the-scenes look at clinical trial environments through the Clinical Research Unit video, followed by an engaging visit to the Center for Artificial Intelligence Research, where Dr. Abbas Alili shared insights on the role of AI in medicine that enhance the quality of care with efficiency.
At Biotech Place, Dr. Marlena Westcott and her team discussed advances in microbiology and immunology for more scientific discoveries that inform our care delivery system, while the Virginia Tech Lab featured Dr. Jillian Urban’s work on biomedical engineering innovations in youth football to find innovative ways of improving sport safety and youth development. The tour continued at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, where Dr. Anastasiya Gorkun highlighted cutting-edge regenerative research that position the School of Medicine as leading institution in generative medicine with real world impact on our patient population and communities served.
A key moment of the day was the keynote address by Dr. Joey Skelton, who presented the Enterprise Research Vision and emphasized community partnership as a cornerstone of translational research that drives the science of translation medicine with a world class cutting edge scientific approach.
Looking Ahead
This Reverse Community Tour was more than an event, it was a step forward and in the right direction of shared ownership of research goals and a commitment with the communities we serve to continue strengthening transparency, trust, authentic partnership and collaboration. We are grateful to our community partners for making this day a success as we look forward to continuing this journey together in driving community-engaged research shaped by our shared commitment to improve health and well-being for all populations.
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For more information and questions contact, Keena Moore, MA at Keena.Moore@Advocatehealth.org. For more Community and Stakeholder Research Engagement Program resources and services, please visit our program website.